Pepperell Selectmen Approve $22.3 Million FY2016 Budget, Advance Town Meeting Warrant

PEPPERELL — April 13, 2015 — Pepperell selectmen unanimously approved a $22,279,000 fiscal year 2016 budget and advanced 18 town meeting warrant articles at their April 13 meeting. Town Administrator Mark Andrews, five months into the role, presented the spending plan, which carries a 6.64 percent average increase driven by a 7.1 percent rise in health care and 3.8 percent growth in retirement costs; additions include one full-time paramedic, a $14,738 library budget increase, and a $10,000 boost to the veterans benefits line against a $221,000 capital plan. Finance Committee Chairwoman Melissa Zanadakis supported the budget but told the board directly, "I don't want people to see that we have a balanced budget and assume that all the problems that we talked about last year have disappeared — they have not," pointing to an eight-year structural deficit and Nashoba Tech assessment increases exceeding 20 percent this year and 23 percent last year. Andrews and Board Chairman Michael Green also testified at the State House before the Joint House and Senate Ways and Means Committee on the regional school assessment formula, meeting privately with House Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey. The board separately approved a $5,000 reserve fund transfer to Bay State Municipal Services to complete a budget-to-actual reporting system and advanced a 15-year tax increment financing proposal from 1A Auto — which promises 150 new jobs — to an April 16 public information session ahead of the annual town meeting in May.